A blister pack is a term for pre-formed plastic packaging that is often used for holding and displaying consumer goods. The two primary components of a blister pack are the cavity or pocket made from a formable web, (e.g., plastic) and a lid (e.g., paperboard or plastic). The formed cavity or pocket contains the product and the lid seals the product within the cavity. Other types of blister packs may consist of carded packages where the products are contained between a paperboard card and clear pre-formed plastic (e.g., polyvinylchloride). The consumer can easily examine the product through the transparent plastic. The plastic shell is vacuum -formed around a mold so it can contain the item snugly. The card may be brightly colored and designed depending on the item inside, and the pre-formed plastic is affixed to the card using heat and pressure to activate an adhesive (heat seal coating) on the blister card. The adhesive is strong enough so that the pack may hang on a peg, but weak enough so that the package can be easily opened. The card may also have a perforated window for access. A more secure package is known as a clamshell. It is often used to deter package pilferage for small high-value items such as consumer electronics. It consists of either two pre-formed plastic sheets or one sheet folded over onto itself and fused at the edges. They are usually designed to be difficult to open by hand so as to deter tampering. A pair of scissors or a sharp knife is often required to open them (although often coming in the same package). Care must be used to safely open some of these packages.
Blister packs are typically thermoformed. Thermoforming is a manufacturing process where a plastic sheet is heated to a pliable forming temperature, formed to a specific shape in a mold, and trimmed to create a usable product. The sheet (or film when referring to thinner gauges and certain material types), is heated in an oven to a high-enough temperature that it can be stretched into or onto a mold and cooled to a finished shape. Thin-gauge thermoforming is primarily the manufacture of disposable cups, containers, lids, trays, blisters, clamshells, and other products for the food, medical, and general retail industries. For high-volume applications, very large production machines are utilized to heat and form the plastic sheet and trim the formed parts from the sheet in a continuous high-speed process, and can produce many thousands of finished parts per hour depending on the machine and mold size and the size of the parts being formed. Thermoformed blister packs for large scale production typically have limited strength and rigidity because of the added manufacturing costs associated with thermoforming more rigid materials or thicker plastic sheets.
Bundling is presently defined as selling two or more different products (e.g., products having different contents, weights, or geometries) together at a single price. Bundling items together gives the unfamiliar consumer the chance to use a product that they would normally not buy as an individual item. Bundling can also provide an opportunity for a company to get new products out into the market. In some cases, consumers may be just looking for one certain game, program, article, etc. For example, if related items are bundled together for a lower price than buying both items separately, then it could persuade consumers to purchase the bundled package. Even if the consumer does not have any plans to use the extra item or items within the bundled package, there is always that slight chance that it could be of some use to them in the future. For example, if the consumer was tired of, or completed a game, then they would be getting more value by playing the other game that was included within the bundle and provided at no, or very little, extra cost to them.
Furthermore, producers of consumer products may offer all their products separately or may choose to bundle them together. If the producer chooses to bundle the products together, it could result in reduced costs related to packaging, marketing, advertising, and the like. The reduce costs of excess packaging materials may also result in a more environmental conscience product (e.g., less plastic is needed to produce the bundled product than two separately packaged products). Bundling items together may also reduce the sales costs and in turn, yield higher profits since more people would be willing to purchase the bundle. Bundled products could also gain an advantage over competition by offering two or more items for a better price than the price of a competitor's single item. Bundling can also offer convenience to the consumer by locating related items together. By locating the two or more products together in a bundle, the consumer avoids the need to locate within the store the individual items, each at their own individual location. This not only saves the effort of locating the items but also the time required to move to each individual product location. This convenience can also be translated into the at-home experience for the consumer. If the products are purchased as a bundled package, there is a higher probability that the items will remain close to each other in the home thereby making it easier to locate them for current, or future, use.
Despite of the advantages of bundling, bundling does have some drawbacks. For example, bundling typically results in a larger and heavier final packaged product because more articles are required to be packaged together. If the structural integrity of the package is compromised, the contents may become damaged or the package may become easier to breach for pilfering. Certain products are difficult to bundle because the individual products must be kept separated from each other because one product may be detrimental to the performance of the other product. For example, a container of shampoo may potentially leak and damage a powered device that is located within the same package. Bundling also increases the weight of the final packaged product, which may adversely influence package integrity. Furthermore, the consumer may perceive the co-packaged article as having inferior quality if the final package appears to be fragile or flimsy. For these reasons, co-packaged articles are often disposed within a thermoformed tray that is placed in a box. This method of displaying may not be as economical and versatile as some other packaging methods, but has proven to be a secure way co-packaging articles.